Phuket, why I never go back

[ScubaSteve]

And stop trying to put a complete happy land spin on Phuket.......

As an unbiased reader, I am not interpreting his later posts in this manner at all. I have never been to Phuket, but will be there for one night in November and then will have what I expect to be 3 wonderful weeks in different areas within Thailand. I do not expect to find my night there to be filled with fear just as I do not expect to be able to wander around waving wads of cash without getting robbed or worse. Crime happens everywhere and some people want to hide that information about their areas. The reality is, while you may be "more at risk" in certain areas of the world, there is not one place on earth where you are truly free of crime. Good fortune favours the prepared, so I see the banter here as (for the most part anyways) very useful. Will I base any decisions solely on what I read on ScubaBoard? Only an idiot would.....so that would mean that NO I would not (just in case you thought I was an idiot ). But it is still good to hear about what happens in the places that I am travelling to.....the good, the bad and the ugly.

 

[Bowmouth]

OK, can you explain the cryptic note about see someone, that was report tied to the head?
And stop trying to put a complete happy land spin on Phuket, I got my walled pinch 3 trips ago. It did not deter me from visit thailand again, but it is what it is. .

Ok, let me try again.
The "crime" you read about in BKK and brought up in one of your previous posts was a suicide. Initial reports of some papers speculated that it was crime related. But after a police investigation it was found that it was just a sad story about a foreigner taking his own life jumping off the Rama VIII bridge with a steel wire (sling) around his head. The wire cut off the head from the body when he jumped and unfortunately the head kept dangling from the bridge attached to the wire until it was removed by forensics.

I do not know where in my post you read I put a "complete happy land spin on Phuket". Please explain.

And lastly I like to comment on your phrase "it is what it is". You surely seem to think you know an awful lot about Thailand after your (3?) trips to this country.
Please keep in mind that some of the posters on this forum have been here for 20 odd years continuously and really know what it is and are delighted to share their wealth of local knowledge with you.

 

[shoturtle]

Certain members wanted the op's post taken off. It was a warning that he wanted to shear with the rest of the board. It is added info, and what I have read form many is that it is completely incorrect. And to me it sounds like they wanted to paint phuket and thailand as a place where crime does not happy and if it does, it is few and far between. If one were to buy into this, alot of tourist would let their guard down, and may have a fun vacation become a sad one.

The truth is from all the state department advisory and german government advisory and countless trip advisory I have read on line, that thailand is a safe country in general, but that tourist should still follow their discretion, and that there are tourist targeted crime. But it seems all the ones living in phuket is trying to say this is not so. But it is true. So as a tourist, I would still enjoy my time in phuket, but still keep my wits about me.

 

[shoturtle]

PS

The people that is traveling to thailand and to phuket is on vacation. As I have made about 6 trips there myself. I want to be as well inform as I possible can. There is nothing wrong with getting the whole picture. And if I can avoid a bad situation form warning form govermental website and other travel info website. It will make my trip even more enjoyable and stress free. Which is what I am looking for in my vacation. So if someone travels to phuket without getting the does and don't and get into a bad situation. What would you say they did wrong?

 

[ScubaSteve]

Anybody that reads a post anywhere on the internet and suddenly believes that a place is free of crime and they can prance around waving cash.....well they deserve to be robbed for being stupid. I live close to Toronto where there are on average about 70 murders per year. Does this make Toronto unsafe? Nope. Does that mean you should steer clear? Nope. If I said that nothing ever happened in Toronto, would you then come here and do stupid things? I would hope not. I belive that sometimes things happen in an effort to thin the gene pool. There are stupid people out there and sometimes they just do stupid things to invite bad situations.

I am not saying the OP is one of these stupid people but am saying that I believe both sides have merit here. Yeah...a bad thing happened (we still have no idea why and I still do not believe the story as told). Only an idiot would say that Phuket is UNSAFE because of one incident. The OP said they would not go back.....if this happened to me I would likely make the same decision. But, on the flip side, only an idiot would say that NOTHING bad ever happens in Phuket. If argued properly, both sides have solid ground to exist on.

 

[orangiraffe]

did you offend someone bad enough they did all that to you?

 

[shoturtle]

But one said is asking that the op post be removed, to me they are trying to censor it. Is that right? This is a public forum, as long as they follow divedoc's guidelines, it has every right to be posted.

Like I said, I have been to thailand several times, I recommend my friends and family to visit thailand if they want a great vacation. They know my taste in hotels and locales and I generally prefer the upscale places for a complete zen experience. So I do not find phuket fits my bill. I do recommend to my parent in law that want to visit the phuket area during x-mas to stay in Khao Lak instead, because I know they are not looking for a Majorca type vacation. It is OUR vacations, not the people living there's vacation. Let US do our fact finding, and most of us will balance the pro and cons out.

My in-laws have friends that own a home in thailand for 20 years, and they did tell me that it has changed over the last 20 years. So the pick pocket thing they warned me about, so I took the add measure of having a travel wallet with next to nothing in it.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Those requests to remove the posts were 10 pages ago....let's move on.

 

[shoturtle]

It is the same members that wanted it remove that seem to want everyone to believe that tourist targeted crimes do not happen. The board is a information board first and foremost, so lets the information good bad and ugly be post if it follows the guild lines.

 

[ScubaSteve]

It is the same members that wanted it remove that seem to want everyone to believe that tourist targeted crimes do not happen. The board is a information board first and foremost, so lets the information good bad and ugly be post if it follows the guild lines.

Again, the "this should be removed" was a long time ago...it seems everybody moved on but you. Now it just seems as though you are the one trying to censor things. There is a discussion happening. Participate, lurk or move on. If anybody else says "let's delete this thread because it is horse pucky and nothing bad ever happens in Thailand" then feel free to preach that deleting the thread would be unfair etc.......but let all sides tell and everybody gets the information they need to make their own informed decision. Otherwise, you are just preventing the information from being delivered.